RoadsideThoughts
A Gazetteer for the United States and Canada
Home >> Commonwealth of Pennsylvania >> Bradford County >> West Franklin >> Tidbits & TriviaIndex...

Outdoor Activities ...

As we travel, we like to pursue some of our interests (such as astronomy and bird watching).

When in West Franklin, we use the following websites to find information relevant to West Franklin and the surrounding area.

  • Weather ...
  • Astronomy & Satellites ...
    • Whether using binoculars, a small telescope or the naked-eye, the Heavens-Above website can help you to find your way around the night-time sky. In addition to detailed sky charts, their website will help you find planets, asteriods, comets, satellites and their tracks across the sky.
    • To give accurate results, Heavens-Above requires the latitude and longitude of your location. As a starting point, when we link to Heavens-Above, we pass this GPS location for West Franklin:
    • 41.696742, -76.626894
    • Once you're on the Heavens-Above website, you can improve its accuracy by giving a more precise longitude and latitude as your actual position.
    • Open the Heavens-Above website centered on West Franklin
  • Bird Watching ...
    • We enjoy finding new spots for bird watching and we use the eBird website for local sighting reports and to help identify hotspots.
    • The eBird website is organized on a county-by-county basis. We have selected Bradford County as the starting point when you click on the link below:
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Bradford County
    • Since West Franklin is near Sullivan County and also Lycoming County, we have provided a link to their eBird sighting reports:
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Sullivan County
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Lycoming County
  • Waymarking ...
    • Looking for somewhere out of the ordinary? Find a unique place and want to share it with others? Then it's time to visit Waymarking.com:
    • Open the Waymark.com report for West Franklin

Communities Also Named West Franklin ...

We found four communities that are also named West Franklin.

Within Pennsylvania, the name West Franklin is unique.

Beyond Pennsylvania, we know of four communities that are located in the United States and Canada. Of these four communities, three are located in the United States and one is in Canada.

  • Communities Elsewhere In North America ...
    • Indiana
      • Posey County
      • This West Franklin is located in Posey County and lies 643 miles [1,034.8 km]<1> to the west southwest of the West Franklin that is located in Bradford County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Posey County community of West Franklin.
    • Maine
      • Hancock County
      • This West Franklin is located in Hancock County and lies 465 miles [748.3 km]<1> to the east northeast of the West Franklin that is located in Bradford County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Hancock County community of West Franklin.
    • New Hampshire
      • Merrimack County
      • This West Franklin is located in Merrimack County and lies 279 miles [449 km]<1> to the east northeast of the West Franklin that is located in Bradford County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Merrimack County community of West Franklin.
    • Ontario
      • We found mention of this community, but have little information.<2> For the information that we do have, please visit our profile page for the Ontario community of West Franklin.

Curious and Interesting Names Near West Franklin ...

As we travel, we always see a community with a name that gives pause. While there are names which are interesting or familiar, some catch our attention or strike our fancy. We always wonder about such a name. If time permits and the community is not too far, we'll usually try to make a side-trip.

  • Carbon
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the southwest)
    • Carbon is located in Bradford County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Carbon
  • Highland
    (5 miles [8 km] to the northeast)
    • Highland is located in Bradford County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Highland
  • Leroy
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the west)
    • Leroy is located in Bradford County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Leroy
  • Long Valley
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the southeast)
    • Long Valley is located in Bradford County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Long Valley
  • Luthers Mills
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the northeast)
    • Luthers Mills is located in Bradford County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Luthers Mills
  • Mac
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the north)
    • Mac is located in Bradford County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Mac
  • Minerville
    (5 miles [8 km] to the south)
    • Minerville is located in Bradford County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Minerville
  • Mountain Lake
    (5 miles [8 km] to the northeast)
    • Mountain Lake is located in Bradford County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Mountain Lake
  • Overshot
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the northeast)
    • Overshot is located in Bradford County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Overshot
  • Windfall
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the west)
    • Windfall is located in Bradford County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Windfall

How Far From West Franklin to ...

We spend a lot of time looking through Gazetteers, Almanacs & Directories that were published in the late 1800's and early 1900's. Many of the Gazetteers include the distance from a community such as West Franklin to various places of note, such as the White House.

With a nod to our favorite Gazetteers, the straight-line distance beginning in West Franklin and extending to:

  • Towanda, which is the Seat of Bradford County, lies 10 miles [16.1 km]<1> to the east northeast. If you could walk a straight line from West Franklin to Towanda, with an average speed<3> of 2.2 miles [3.5 km] per hour, it would take four to five hours to make the trip. A horse and buggy averaging 3.2 miles [5.1 km] per hour would take a little over three hours.
  • Harrisburg, which is the State Capital of Pennsylvania, lies 98 miles [157.7 km] to the south (S). Driving, with an average speed of 63 miles [101.4 km] per hour, would take less than two hours, a buggy would take three full days and walking would take 6 days.
  • The White House (Washington, DC) is 194 miles [312.2 km] to the south (S). Driving would take a little over three hours, a buggy would take 8 days and walking would take 11 days.
  • The shortest distance<4> to Jerusalem (specifically the Temple Mount and the Dome of the Rock) is 5,762 miles [9,273 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<5>
  • The distance to the Great Mosque of Mecca (specifically the Ka'bah - or Kaaba ) is 6,478 miles [10,425.3 km] and it lies to the east northeast (ENE).<6>
  • The distance to Saint Peter's Basilica (The Vatican) is 4,353 miles [7,005.5 km] and it lies to the east northeast (ENE).<7>'

Footnotes ...

<1>Our distances are not driving distances, but are calculated as a 'straight-line' (or point-to-point) distance. A straight line distance ignores obstructions like rivers, canyons, lakes, et cetera - it's truly a line drawn from Point A (ie- West Franklin) to Point B. In other words: 'As the crow flies'.
<2>If we encounter the name of what might be a community, our methodology is to add that name to our Gazetteer as a placeholder. As we find more information about that community, it will be added to our Gazetteer.

Just as a reminder: Our definition of a community is rather broad and includes those places (or areas) where several families lived and had a name which identified that place. For example, you might hear somebody say that they are going over to Bird Creek to see Pete ... Bird Creek is just a gas station and a couple of homes at the crossroads. While it might not be on the map, everybody in the area knows it by that name.

Places of interest include buildings at a crossroad, several families clustered in a hollow or maybe the location of a way station. It also includes places like mines, lumber camps, ferry crossings, etc. The community might still exist, is now gone or only existed for just a short period of time.

Also keep in mind that West Franklin could have been on the original document by mistake, misspelled, the original/alternate name of a community that we've listed elsewhere or was placed in the wrong county. Sometimes a post office or train station would have a different name than the community where it's located, so two names might be referring to the same community - we're working to straighten it all out.
<3>While we have tried to pick reasonable speeds, the rate of travel is very theoretical - obstacles like fences, hills, lakes, river crossings and rest stops have been ignored. When we say 'Days' of travel, we're assuming 8 hours of travel per day.
<4>The shortest line can be visualized by stretching a string on a Globe from Point A to Point B - this is known as a Great Circle Route. Where you might expect the shortest route from West Franklin to the Middle East to be East and South, the Great Circle Route actually lies to the North and East.Our distance measurements begin at a specific point in West Franklin. The point we use is located at these GPS coordinates - Latitude: 41.6967, Longitude: -76.6269       In this case, the coordinates for West Franklin have been provided by the Geographic Names Information System (GNIS).
<5>The calculated bearing (or angle) to Jerusalem is 307.427 degrees.
<6>The calculated bearing (or angle) to Mecca is 303.352 degrees.
<7>The calculated bearing (or angle) to the Vatican is 303.401 degrees.